Martial
Rousing the Home Militia
DC: 15. Roll: 18 + 2 + 9.4 = 29.4
Martial
Site Investigation III
DC: 15. Roll: 18 + 2 + 3 + 3.0 = 26.0
Mustering the town militia is ultimately a simple affair - the people are angry and riled up at the army that has suddenly decamped at their front door, and more than a few angry mutterings are channeled productively into the militia. In order to avoid this becoming an all-out fight immediately, however, you and the militia commanders agree to go investigate whatever that huge explosion outside of town a few days ago was.
The militia grumbles a little bit, but upfront pay and a cut of whatever loot you find down there has them perking up and excavating with a gusto.
And oh boy, do you find loot.
An entire mound of silver coinage and other treasures, buried beneath hill. Many of them had been ruined by the explosion, but some were still good - though admittedly, the mad scramble for the treasure by the militia meant that you could only really grab one thing before you got it out.
Choose One.
[] [Loot] Money
Money is always at a premium in your profession, especially money that you can use to help fund your continuing operations.
[] [Loot] Robes
This robe shimmers with a magic, an enchantment weaved upon it that seems like it could be used to help either infiltration or diplomacy. Moreover...it seems to respond to the touch of your own personal magic, somehow.
[] [Loot] Sword
This sword is obviously magical. You couldn't possibly avoid the conclusion if you wanted to, and simply approaching it makes it clear that it draws deeply from the wielder.
[] [Loot] Chest
Of course, that makes this chest jump out to you all the more. What could possibly be so valuable that whoever had set up this hoard had locked it into a box that screamed the contents were more valuable than even the sword and the robes?
Diplomacy
Guild Meetings
DC: 20. Roll: 20 + 8.5 = 28.5
You have an interest in keeping the debts canceled. The merchant houses had an interest in keeping the debts canceled. Nominally you had more authority, but you felt it best to show your respect for the Merchant Guild by visiting them first.
They are all too happy to receive you, and confirm by and large that they gladly stand behind the provisional Sejm, not the usurper nobles.
That's one hassle settled, you sigh in relief.
Intrigue
Searching for Blackmail
DC: 28. Roll: 22 + 3 + 2 + 7.4 = 34.4
Tch. How typical. You demonstrate some of the greatest skills in infiltration with Kerrie's help, and in the end all you can scrounge up is some measly blackmail on some of the lesser nobles and powers. Apparently this army had the good sense to not write down their blackmail in somewhere eminently stealable, which sets you way back - you can settle for some of the lesser nobles sleeping around, being overly indebted by gambling issues, and all the other rot, but on the ringleaders you have nothing.
Oh well.
You guess it's not nothing.
Learning
Refining Equipment
DC: 24. Roll: 21 + 8.3 = 29.3
There's not much to say - Tekla finishes up the experimentation and modifications, and stabilizes his new compass framework in order to be able to detect metal at a significant distance. You're certain that it will come in handy for certain operations.
New Tool unlocked!
Directional Compass Array
Significantly reduces the DC for investigations that involve searching for large pieces of magnetic metal.
Stewardship
Cross Examination
DC: 25. Roll: 23 + 5.8 = 28.8
As you suspected, these documents were too recent. You had suspicions when the delegates had opted to read the charges themselves rather than hand them over to the duly represented speaker for the Sejm, and the list of charges only confirmed it. The initial charges were vague, and the newest charging documents took advantage of all the latest information they had undoubtedly found at the Sejm.
You supposed it was fortunate that your name carried some amount of reputation for straight-forwardness, because they could find no good reason to deny your request to examine the documents under the color of the court of their peers, not without provoking a troublesome duel for honor that surprisingly few people truly wanted to take.
As you immediately suspected, the new charges on the official documents had hardly been written up before the arrival of the usurper nobles - therefore, you charge, the charging document was clearly drafted after the accusations were levied, and one of the privileges that one House Arrens was owed was the right to have all charges levied against them and their allies at the time of accusations. The converse of said privilege being that once an accusation was made, it must either be retracted should the charges be insufficient, or a new charge levied with all due process under the color of the law.
The usurper nobles are not happy with your simple, straightforward legal reasoning, but you are the Just for a reason, and if you say it then justice exists within the constraints of your own.
Clearly, these usurpers would have to refile, since the clear indication was that these charging documents were invalid under the laws of the greater Sejm from which they claimed to derive their authority.
Piety
The Duty to Oskaria
DC: 30. Roll: 23 + 3 + 1 + 1.8 = 28.8
Well, you successfully have Oskaria's attention. You know the ritual worked because of a thousand little touches - but you also get the sense of a distinct...neutrality in the air, as the spirit of Oskaria decides to exist at once everywhere in the populace and at once nowhere. This was disappointing, but only mildly so - at the very least, you knew you had Oskaria's attention, even if you could not immediately sway Oskaria to take your side.
You sighed, and acknowledged it. You could not begrudge Oskaria for deciding to reserve judgement until they had examined the situation to their own satisfaction.
Hostile Action: Church Faith
Unfortunately, exactly what you were afraid of happening had happened.
The usurper nobles were backed by their army and their relative wealth - Gaspard Thevenet commanded some degree of respect while also demanding a truly outrageous bribe. This made the two tailor-fit for each other, and while Thevenet made sure to be careful with the direction he pushed the bishoprics to officially announce their own stance, nevertheless the church came down on the side of collecting the feudal dues - and therefore the resumption of the collection of debts, in full.
This...does not make him a popular man, to say the least, but his wealth and his noble status keeps the streets from immediately marching on his house.
Random Event Roll: 18
??? Delayed!
To make the situation worse, the local nobles had clearly been swayed by the argument to resume collecting the feudal dues, even if they wanted to avoid giving a single sliver of silver to these outside usurpers - the sudden, abrupt halt to feudal collections had utterly collapsed the shaky foundations of many of their budgets, and in literally another month or two without collections they would literally be out of money to spend. While this fortunately did mean that these nobles still did not want to pay out the money to the usurpers, it greatly weakened the calls to simply throw out the usurpers and go with the plan to negate the debts and resume collections only after the debt situation was hashed out.
Something bothers you about this whole situation, however.
Some of the key voices you hear are missing - and in the air, you feel more than you know that the spirit of Oskaria has come to a decision.
Friendly Piety Interrupt: 18
As you expected, one dreary morning Mickael Dubost slams through the door, power palpitating out of his every pore - power not his own, you realize. On his back rested the weight of the nation, and his denunciation of the usurper nobles' hamfisted attempts to loot the citizenry to which they owed no loyalty and no obligations carried the force of Oskaria's condemnation. The usurper nobles, having spent the previous month antagonizing you, desperately call for you to shut down the upjumped peasantry - you silence them with an errant gaze, backed by your own Justice.
The local nobles are clearly split on the matter - on the one hand, very suddenly, they realize that the peasantry and the urban poor, led by Mickael Dubost and spoken for by the power of Oskaria, is a power bloc that could overpower them should they choose to not act. On the other hand, these urban poor were aligned with the local nobility for now, and any amount of power was welcome in a storm.
The usurper nobles decided to then make a threat of it, bringing their army into the city.
Mickael Dubost and the spirit of Oskaria stood in answer, stiffening the backs of the militia and striking fear and doubt into the hearts of the usurper nobles' retainer.
The situation now rested on a precipice. On one side lay the usurper nobles, who had clearly opposed you from the beginning. On the other stood the city, backed by the urban militia. They answered to the spirit of Oskaria and Mickael as the representative, not you.
But in some ways, this neutrality means that you might be able to de-escalate - provided you even wanted to, at this point.
Service Revenue: 1 Budget.
Other gains: 6 Budget.
Cost of Services Sold: 1 Budget.
Discovery Expense: 4 Budget.
Negotiations Expense: 2 Budget.
Salaries and Wage Expense: 3 Budget.
Net Loss: 3 Budget.
Collection of Accounts Receivable: 2 Budget.
Remaining Budget: 50 Budget.
Accounts Receivable: 31 Budget.
The province is at a crossroads, the tension suffusing the warm air of June. The right spark could easily set off an event to rival the July Days - but a part of you seriously wondered whether it might not be better to simply fire.
You have 50 Budget and a problem on your hands. You can spend up to 20 Budget this turn.
You have 3 [Free] Actions that may be spent in any category.
You have 5 Minor Boons that you may attach to any Action.
You can cooperate with your teammates to add +3 base stat to an action that you are cooperating on. It is represented by using your [Free] Action on one of your already-selected Actions.
Martial (Choose 1) {Kerrie Action}
[] [Martial] With a Bang
Time to evict these usurper nobles squatting on the territory, with the full might of the militia. You will speak up for the war, and you will prosecute it to its short conclusion. DC: 28. Cost: 0 Budget.
[] [Martial] Yellow Alert
A surprise war that could give the usurper nobles a legitimate grievance and frighten the fence-sitters among the local nobility is not worth risking, in your opinion - but neither is unilateral disarmament on the table. DC: 28. Cost: 0 Budget.
Diplomacy (Choose 1) {Agueda Action}
[] [Diplomacy] Diplomatic Solutions
Maybe you can find a win-win solution that doesn't involve crashing all of your diplomatic efforts and the provincial economy. DC: 30. Cost: 8 Budget.
[] [Diplomacy] Diplomatic Justifications
Or maybe you can't, and you're best off attempting to sell a casus belli you can use to kick these usurpers out. DC: 27. Cost: 2 Budget.
[] [Diplomacy] Government Assurances
Who controls the government controls the tax office, and considering how important the tax office is to the crux of the case, you need them under control. DC: 21. Cost: 0 Budget.
[] [Diplomacy] Noble Assurances
Some of the wavering nobles are afraid of the power that the militia controls, and the disastrous state of their own finances - it would be best to gently coax them back onto your side. DC: 25. Cost: 6 Budget.
Intrigue (Choose 1) {Agueda Action}
[] [Intrigue] The Backers
This group couldn't've thought of this on their own, and they certainly could not have coordinated this on their own. Find out who's backing them. DC: 27. Cost: 0 Budget.
[] [Intrigue] Sabotage
If you're going to kick off hostilities, better make sure their horses are released, their powder wet, and their other supplies ruined, no? DC: 28. Cost: 2 Budget.
[] [Intrigue] Robbery
Clearly, if the usurpers have this much money to throw around you can scrounge up some from their own coffers - both to get it out of their hands and into yours. DC: 28. Gain: 10 Budget.
[] [Diplomacy] Thevenet's Offer
Damn that two-faced bastard, but he's willing to walk back the church's support of the usurpers in exchange for a suitably sized bribe. DC: 15. Cost: 15 Budget.
[] [Intrigue] Government Faith
Bribery is simple, bribery is easy, and it circumvents having to repeatedly beat duty into the government employee's heads. DC: 15. Cost: 4 Budget.
Learning (Choose 1) {Tekla Actions}
[] [Learning] Mapping Enemy Forces
With the Directional Compass Array, you can point it around the enemy forces to find where the enemy is keeping their huge metallic items, like, persay, their cannons and armor. DC: 15. Cost: 0 Budget.
[] [Learning] Better Sets of Tools
Tekla's pointing out that part of the problem for him is that he can't upgrade your tools very well because his own tools are not up to par. Grant him some budget to get a better set of tools. DC: 25. Contingent Cost: 4 Budget.
Stewardship (Choose 1) {Agueda Action}
[] [Stewardship] Continued Support
As before, as now. Continue to provide support for the fledgling businesses, especially in the uncertainty of the current market. DC: 15. Cost: 0 Budget.
[] [Stewardship] Inheritance Review
You also have suspicions about the powers granted to the branch nobility - and if you can prove that these clowns don't have the right to claim what they did, you can cut their case off at the knees. DC: 28. Cost: 0 Budget.
[] [Stewardship] Finding a Cause
If you want to declare a just war on these usurpers, you need to find an appropriate casus belli - which means hitting the books or your own memory to find one. DC: 25, Investigative Action. Cost: 0 Budget.
[] [Stewardship] Making Exceptions
If the problem is that the nobles cannot sustain themselves without feudal dues but cannot collect, it occurs to you that you could simply pull some legal maneuvers to reinstate feudal dues without also reinstating debt collection. It'd just be a little tricky, and you'd have to start with the noble houses most strapped for cash. DC: Scaling. Cost: 0 Budget.
Piety (Choose 1) {Agueda Action}
[] [Piety] Local Representatives
The local spirits remain as unhappy with the usurper nobles as ever, but like the nobility they are discomfited by the sudden surge of Oskaria muscling into their turf. Give them a leader who will represent their interests. DC: 20. Cost: 2 Budget.
[] [Piety] Justice the Mediator
Now that the situation is at the point where it is, bringing Justice the Mediator in to help defuse the situation would likely reduce the pressure - provided you can get Justice the Mediator to show up. DC: 28. Cost: 0 Budget.
[] [Piety] The Oskaria Realignment
Well, the Spirit of Oskaria has decided to take a side. The problem is, it's not your side, and you want it to be your side - or at least, you're willing to somewhat meet it in the middle. DC: 26. Cost: 0 Budget.
